Who's Protecting Your Cloud?

End Users, Watch Out! Surprisingly, 31% of IT leaders say security in cloud applications rests with their company’s end users.

Cloud computing is what the world is focusing on right now. Both big and small companies around the globe are saying that cloud computing is improving productivity, making employees happier, and producing an overall positive impact on the office. Things are going so well, in fact, that even the business side is pushing the IT professionals in the office to add more cloud computing solutions. Cloud computing, in other words, has hit a tipping point.

But as a new survey of 748 IT and IT security practitioners by CA Technologies has found, cloud computing is still causing its fair share of security troubles. In fact, when it comes to best practices, just half of the companies engaging in cloud computing are doing their best to secure those solutions.

“We believe that organizations can do better and gain the benefits of cloud computing by reducing risk and achieving that desired balance of protection and business enablement,” according to CA Technologies General Manager Mike Denning.

In other words, for all of the benefits of cloud computing, when it comes to actually securing the network and performing all of the proactive tasks that ensure sensitive data isn’t seeping into the wild, CIOs need to step up their game.

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology columnist. He started writing about technology for Ziff-Davis' Gearlog.com. Since then, he has written extremely popular columns for CNET.com, Computerworld, InformationWeek, and others. He has appeared numerous times on national television to share his expertise with viewers. You can follow his every move at http://twitter.com/donreisinger.